World Beyond You
by Inexcess
Summary: When Leah gets pregnant, she doesn't handle it well. Neither does the father to be, Jacob. Or his imprint, Nessie. Actually, nobody, including Leah's nerves and stomach, is going to handle this baby well. *Chaptered story*
1. Chapter 1

She knocks on his doorway one afternoon, and when he answers it, he sees her hair, wild and tangled (she's growing it again), and her eyes, also wild. That's all he can see, because she's filling his vision with a little stick. A stick with pink on the end of a white tab.

"Oh, shit," Jacob says, and there's a pause before Leah does anything. When she does, it's very violent and kind of angry. (but hey, this is Leah Clearwater. When it anything NOT violent and angry?) She slams a hand into his chest, effectively sending him stumbling backwards. "Ow! Ow! I can't breathe!" Wheezing, Jacob looks up through blurry vision to see Leah entering his home and advancing menacingly. "Wa….wait." he holds up an imploring hand, but strengthens his voice with alpha-ness. Leah isn't forced into obeying, but instincts make her think twice. "Okay. It's positive. Who's the father?"

"You DICK!" screams Leah, looking deranged. "I'm not the whore of La Push! We'll leave that to your spawny imprint!"

Jacob feels a bolt of fury. "She is NOT the whore of La Push! She's not even on the rez!"

"Oh, so she's right outside," Leah mocks. "At any rate, you and I both know she jumped in the sack with not only Nahuael, but that other leech that visited a while ago. I've only had sex with one guy in the last two years, Jake, so you'd better think long and hard." She zeroes in on him with narrowed eyes.

"Me?" croaks Jacob.

"Ding ding ding," Leah spits. "You. Ready to have a baby? No? Well, me either."

Jacob's head is reeling. "Leah…" he manages, "Lee…oh God."

"You're being religious now?" Leah attempts to be even harder and more sarcastic then she has been, but suddenly it cracks, and she leans against the doorframe with tears in her eyes. "Shit, Jake, I can't have a baby. This wasn't supposed to happen, Goddammit! I'm…I'm sterile! I was supposed to get married and…and…imprint and stop phasing and THEN have a…have a…" her voice cracks and she looks away, biting her lip. Jacob's shoulders slump and he starts coming towards her, but she reacts by rearing backwards, staring at him for a minute, and then she opens her mouth. The scream that comes pouring out is inhuman, but it isn't wolfy either. It's a sound of pure fury. Before he can blink, she's lunged at him, and he registers her nails sinking deep into his skin before his echoing roar of pain. Her knees hit him in his stomach area – how the hell did she jump like that?! Is she secretly a ninja? – and her forehead cracks into his. Her hands are pummeling, her feet are gouging, and Jacob reacts by instinct. With an inhuman snarl, he throws her to the ground and flings himself on top, pinning her. Their faces are inches apart, and suddenly her eyes cool from the furious passion into something else, and her breathing quickens with his.

"Um…" Jacob says, and he knows that the light pink spreading along her sharp cheekbones is mirrored in his face. "Sorry!" he scrambles off of her, although something tries to hold him back. "Um…I…" he needs to change the subject now. "What was that about?"

For once, Leah looks lost for words. It isn't for long, though. She scrambles upwards and snaps, "You knocked me up! I'm pissed! But then you…" she stops and blushes furiously. "You pulled that sexy-alpha move, or whatever that was."

"Shut up!" Jacob's still too embarrassed to make it sound forceful. "I have instincts of a wolf."

"Are you one with the wolf inside of you, Jakey?" Leah asks innocently. Far too innocently. Jacob narrows his eyes in pretend warning. "Haha, I'm so scared. Anyway, I have to go…tell mom, probably…so yeah. I'll…leave now."

"Leah?" Jacob wants to stop her suddenly, but she turns her back quickly. "Leah, I want to tell you…I'm going to help you with this kid. I'm not gonna leave you without help."

"We'll see what Nessie has to say," is Leah's bitter response before she clicks the door shut behind her.

Nessie doesn't have anything good to say about it indeed. "You knocked her up?" growls his imprint, her perfect hand clenched into fists. "Well, tell her to abort the thing!"

What? Thinks Jacob. "No," he says out loud. "No, Ness." He smoothes back her shimmery hair soothingly. "Ness, this child is half of me! And half of Leah! I can't just abort it. I love it…"(and it's mother)… "too much."

"So it's gonna be an ugly bastard kid." Nessie's eyes cut little shards of hate at Jacob. "Whatever, Black."

"Whoa." Jacob feels a strange surge of fury towards his imprint. "That's uncalled for. Everybody knows you did that other halfbreed the second you could."

Nessie's cheeks flush and he mouth opens in fury. "You!" she can't seem to think of anything else to say, though, so she tries to punch him. He catches her fist in the air with ease.

"Really now. Calm down." Something strange happens for a minute; his heartbeat slows down and he feels freer that he has in a while. Confused, he drops her hand and squints, at the same time a sharp, vicious pain, worse than both of Leah's knees in his gut, hits his chest. Doubling over, Jacob gasps wildly for breath for the third time that day. Above him, he hears Nessie.

"Jake, stop it. Get up." Pause. "Jake?" Pause. "Jacob!" Finally she sounds worried. "Jacob! No, no, no, are you okay? Oh, Jake!" She crouches to his newly shortened level and stares into his eyes. For a few seconds, the pressure increases, but then it slowly ebbs away. Grateful, Jacob collapses all the way, feeling like somebody just ripped out his heart and maybe throat. "Ness," he croaks, "I'm fine." He manages a slightly reassuring smile.

"Are you sure?" she puts a hand on his skin and squeezes gently. "C'mon, honey, lets get you to the couch."

For the rest of the day, Jacob deals with feeling horribly weak and sick. Leah, several miles away, is dealing with the same thing, if not for entirely different reasons.

A/N.* So, at first it was gonna be a LOOOONG one-shot, but I decided against it. This is my fiiiirst chaptered fic! *squeal* I hope I do a good job. Any suggestions for the plot, you can put them in reviews or whatever ^.^

Um, as a side noteeee. I HATE those fics where Leah has a kid (with whoever) and then the kid starts growing up and is so cute and spunky and speshul. I hate mostly all Twilight characters and Twilight in general because ALL the main characters are so damn speshul ALL THE TIME. And usually leah spoils the kid in those fics, which I can't see happening. So this will mostly be Leah's pregnancy to the birth of the kid and then maybe the epilogue will be a ten or twenty years later thing. Haha. Updates will be at least twice a week!


	2. Chapter 2

Second Chapter

It's because she's not white, Leah decides, that all this misfortune happens to her. If she was white, like Bella was, she'd have loving parents, a family of her own, and a fairy-tale ending. This is not what Leah receives. She gets a dead father, a guy who doesn't love her knocking her up, and an ending that probably will depict her flipping burgers miserably to support a brat. But then, white people seem to die young.

"Mom," Leah says, coming in the doorway and shedding her coat. The female werewolf can hear Sue Clearwater puttering around in the kitchen, oblivious. She figures it's easier to say it quick and fast. "Mom, I'm pregnant. It's Jacob Black's kid." She proceeds into the kitchen, where she doesn't see her mother, like she thought.

Seth, Embry, and Quil are all staring at her with something akin to wonder. "Shit," Leah manages. "Well. Cat's out of the bag…" Why does she feel so embarrassed? "Stop staring," she snarls, to cover up her nervousness. They don't. Embry's fork, loaded with pasta, actually falls out of his hands like in the movies. Leah storms to the fridge and gets a carton of ice cream, snatches up Seth's serving spoon, and digs in. The silence would be harder than the ice cream to stick a spoon through at this point.

"Lee?" Seth finally manages, and he tries to take the tub of ice cream.

"No!" Leah gets aggressive; yanking it away from him, she smacks his hand with her spoon. "I'm pregnant and the dad doesn't even love me! I. Deserve. Ice. Cream." She shots him a glare that could shatter glass. There's a long pause, and then she asks in a small voice, "Are you mad at me?"

"Wha…no!" Seth sputters, fumbling for words. He expects a giant smile in return for his enthusiastic support.

Leah defies expectations by snapping, "Good. Because I'd hate to have to gouge your eyes out if you weren't."

"Neheh," whimpers Seth. He has no doubts that Leah will do this to him, too. "But…Lee…how long ago did…you know, and like, where?"

"How long ago did I have sex, Seth?" Leah asks, sounding bored. "Two weeks ago. On Jake's dresser. There were…several instances…in which this baby could have begun."

"Chriiiist," groans Quil, covering his ears. "Leah! I want chaste thoughts!"

"Too late for youuu!" sings Leah, and then, "I thought I was sterile. He did too. We didn't use anything, obviously." She pauses again, and then suddenly she's wiping at her eyes. "Damn baby," she hiccups. "It's…it's…screwing with me!"

Embry gets up and surprises everybody, maybe even himself, by wrapping her in a hug that only a werewolf can give – a bone-crushing, overheated, shirtless hug. "Leah," he says calmly. "Lee, we're not gonna abandon you. We're not Sam. And if Jake even thinks about backing out of this…"

"I'll whip his sorry ass," hisses Seth in interruption.

"Then we'll run him to Canada and back and make him help you," finishes Quil.

Leah's hiccups fade, but they can all see the tears trickling down Embry's shoulder were her face is pressed. And suddenly she wraps her arms around him. "Thanks," she says, in a voice that old Leah might have used. And she starts shuddering with tears.

And everybody in the kitchen understands that's Leah's too exhausted, too hurt and confused and anxious, to continue holding herself together. They all silently accept that now, they need to take bigger roles in piecing back together her heart.

*

Jacob is alone, on a beach, which is really cliché, but honestly. He knows that only half a mile away, part of him is growing inside of Leah. And although he knows this isn't going to be a good or smooth road, and he knows that somewhere Nessie will test his imprint and it will hurt worse than it did today, and that Leah will reject him because it's all she knows how to do now, he starts to smile. Jacob Black, alpha of a renegade pack, the man that broke every imprinting rule, the man that will now be a father, sits on the beach and watches the sunset and imagines not curly bronze hair, but black ink spilling over copper shoulders, highlighted by the fading light.


	3. Chapter 3

The morning is new and quiet, fresh grass wet and pliant under Leah's feet. The urge to turn into a wolf, to start pounding into the ground with paws, to carry a streamlined form on forever with reckless abandon, is growing within her to the point of a nervous breakdown.

But Leah figures that a self-preformed abortion is kind of sick, and even she won't stoop that low. Plus, Leah's noticed that Jake's pack has become a lot nicer, almost like her little slavey-boys. Not in a sex-slave way, obviously (Ugh…thinking about doing that with Quil or Embry…and she isn't even going to THINK about that with Seth), but in the way that she only has to start sobbing and they're at her beck and call. Leah hasn't eaten that much ice cream in her whole life as she did last night.

She left a note telling Seth she's visiting Doctor Cullen, the one who reminds her of plastic. He's so calm ALL the time, so cool and collected, so helpful and wonderful. Leah half thinks he would melt if you put him in the microwave. In reality, this note is complete and utter bullshit. Leah has no intention of ever visiting Doctor I Have No Thoughts Of My Own. But she knows Seth and Embry and Quil will feel better if she says she did. They kept pushing for it last night, so Leah decides they'll give it a rest now.

Crunching through the forest, Leah's super-sensitive ears pick up something – the sound of footsteps, coming her way. And she catches a faint drift of Jacob on the wind. She can't decide if she wants to see him right now, so she just stands still, pretending she has deep connection with the soil. She and the dirt are one. She'll pretend to be a stereotypical Indian and bond with nature. Five seconds later, a figure emerges and stops short.

"Leah," says the girl with bronze curls down to her ass and skin the color of porcelain and the texture of satin. She glimmers in the pale sunlight, but her dark amber eyes (how many other nauseatingly special details can Leah fit to her?) are narrowed in a distinctly non-sparkly manner. In fact, she looks really pissed. "What are you doing?"

"How rude," Leah says coolly. "I'm not allowed to walk around? You should really let me, since I'm pregnant with your imprints child. The fresh air is healthy for me."

"I'll bet I smell like Jacob. It's because we had sex last night," Renesmee spits.

One of Leah's eyebrows pulls up her forehead quizzically and she disguises all feelings but contempt. "That's nice. If you're attempting to make me jealous, it's failing miserably, since only one of us is carrying his child. That aside, isn't he good in bed? He does things I've never even heard of!"

Renesmee's face turns bright red with a tinge of purple. "Bitch!" she snarls, fists clenching again.

"Oh, do calm down. You don't have to get so upset. After all, he had sex with you last night, didn't he? There's still a connection. Be happy, dear. Or is it freaking you out that you know these next few months are going to totally test your strength in the imprint?"

Renesmee can't think of anything to say. Instead, she whirls and begins to head back and then stops and looks at Leah. "He will be mine," she hisses, lowly, her eyes peeling shreds of Leah's composure away; she's trying to see if Leah is more uncertain than she's been letting on. "You can't break an imprint, Leah. If Sam couldn't, why would Jacob?"

Once Nessie's gone, evaporating into the evils from whence she came, Leah slowly backs up and leans against a tree. The encounter, particularly the last bit of it, has rattled Leah more than she'll ever admit. Why would he break the imprint for her? It's just going to be one kid, after all. And what if he gets Nessie pregnant?

One thing stings more than the rest, and it's that Jake slept with Nessie. He knew I was pregnant, that whore, Leah thinks in her mind, and suddenly she's irrationally angry. No, never mind, it isn't irrational. It's perfectly rational. How dare he!

It 's midday and Jacob's phased. Through his chocolate coat, the sun is beating brutally, and Jacob is taking his time running patrol when Seth phases.

_Seth_! he keeps his greeting friendly but apprehensive, wondering if Seth knows about Jacob's little secret last night.

_Jake, I already know. You'd better watch out though_. Seth's thoughts are a little pissed, but nonetheless, he still seems amiable. _Nessie told Leah you guys had a … fun … night together. She's furious. As in, she threw three vases at the door and literally punched a hole through the wall of her room_. At which point Jacob freezes and thinks panicked thoughts. There, in front of him, is the girl herself. And furious doesn't cover the expression on her face.

"Jacob. Black." Her eyes drill smoking holes in his coat. "I. Can't. Believe. The Nerve. Of you."

Jacob whimpers and presses himself to the ground, flattening his ears nervously. Alpha or no, nothing can stand up to the look he's being treated to. He gives an imploring head-jerk, but Leah crosses her arms. "You want to phase, you do it right NOW, right HERE, so that you can't run off and screw some OTHER girl."

"That's not fair," Jacob mumbles as he slowly becomes human. "I don't run around sexing people up!" Embarrassed, he quickly pulls on his shorts. "Leah, I'm sorry, okay? I can't resist an imprint's wish!"

"Well, maybe you fucking should!" Leah yells, and launches herself at him again. Although he should really start expecting it when she does that, he doesn't, and this time, her knee gets him right between the legs. Jacob drops unceremoniously, mouth open in a silent scream of pain. It doesn't help when Leah, who has no qualms about hitting a man when he's down, lands her foot in that exact spot again.

Jacob's agonized gurgles do nothing for Leah's sense of fury and need for justice. Before he can clench his knees together, Leah pounds her foot there a third agonizing time. Jacob decides that he has now been sterilized and that it's a good thing Leah's pregnant, because it's the only kid he'll ever be able to father. "Mother—useless piece of – damn little – never mind the fact---" She's yelling as she jumps on top of him and starts attacking him, but he can't make the words out clearly. The part of him that isn't in agony wonders: if she's only two weeks along and she's already acting like this, what about, say, four months? And shouldn't a pregnant woman respect her body a little more than using it to beat people up?

Finally, her words fall silent, the last echoes fading away, and she rolls off of him, panting. For a moment, both are silent, and then Leah opens her mouth and says, "I can't believe you."

"Lee," Jacob says, but he knows there isn't anything he can say that'll make it better. "Leah. I'm…I don't know what to say."

"Funny. Neither do I." Leah's voice is different, and Jacob realizes it has a hard, bitter coating – something it had recently lost. It almost physically hurts to realize he had caused this voice to come back. She shakes her head, still lying down, and Jacob looks over at her. "I thought I meant something to you."

She sits up and rests her forehead on her knees. Jacob stays on the ground, still painfully aware of the region between his legs, which is throbbing like nothing else. He really wants to throw up. And die. And then maybe cry a lot. But Leah's next question knocks him off guard.

"When I have this baby, where are you going to be?"

"With you!" Jacob is shocked.

"Are you sure?" Leah won't look at him anymore, she stands up and brushes off her legs, like attacking and mauling men is something she does every day. (It probably is.) "Because I kinda needed you a lot last night, too, and where were you then? Think hard about your priorities, Jake." She shakes her head at him. "I think the worst part was how I didn't really expect you to be there for me, either."

Jacob watches her walk away, and lets a feeling of steely resolve build.

Then he gets up to go talk to Nessie.

A/N: How many of you listen to music when you write? I do it (I'll listen to songs on Youtube but minimize the window while I type) but I've discovered I have to listen to one song consistently through one chapter. For example, for the first half I listen to Amy Rose's "All Around the World." But when I got to the part where Nessie and Leah meet up, I started listening to DJ Splash's "Flying High" and the attitude of the WHOLE thing totally changed. And Leah and Nessie got into this huge fight, because I write to the music lol. So I had to go back, listen to the first song all over again, erase the fight, and rewrite it. Augh, Complicated.

ANYWAY. Things for Leah are heating up, and there will be a lot more Leah-Jacob coming up soon. If Leah seems a little OOC, it's because she's preggers, you guys. You can't expect her to be nice the whole time, or bitchtastic the whole time. Her hormones are totally screwed, so she'll be acting accordingly. On that note, in the next chapter or two, a really cute scene involving baking, Leah and Jacob will happen. xD R&R! On a side note, I'm sure some people are like, "Jake, you manwhore!" or, "Inexcess, that isn't Jacob AT ALL. He wouldn't sleep with Nessie when he knows leah's pregnant!" Well, this is MY STORY. ^.^ just kidding. However, Jake can't deny nessie anything. And come on, she's a hot girl and he's a horny guy. Would it be that hard to persuade him?

(Also, some of you may have noticed that Renesmee flips from being Renesmee to Nessie. That's because Jake thinks of her as Nessie, where as Leah can only think of her as Renesmee.)


	4. Chapter 4

Nessie is far from understanding. She walks downstairs with a nasty switch of her hips, leans again the counter, and enquires coolly, "So did the bitch get the message?"

"Well," Jacob snaps, his eyes narrowing at his imprint, "I don't know. She's leaning against the counter talking to me, so I guess not."

Nessie's cheeks flare with spots of color, and instead of getting violent, her mouth drops into a little 'O' of confusion and hurt. "But Jake…" she whispers, and then changes gears with violent speed. Before he can blink she's crushing herself up against him, rubbing and whispering and smelling so, so want-able. "I love it when you talk dirty to me," she whispers throatily. _Gulp_.

"I wasn't talking dirty," he starts, and then she accidently brushes against a still rather sensitive spot. "OW!" Without thinking, he flings her backwards, and she smashes theatrically against the opposing counter. The force bends her backwards almost flat against the granite surface before she springs forward again. Suddenly her hair isn't quite a smooth and shiny, and her eyes definitely aren't big and romantic. Jacob feels a growing twinge of hate – how DARE she try to seduce him! For the first time, Jacob doesn't squash the hate. He doesn't tell himself, _That's wrong to feel hate towards her, Jake. She's your soul mate._ He stands very still and sees through her mask, into the rotting brat that lies inside, and lets his loathing grow and grow.

And then it starts hurting again. It starts as a vague tingle that rapidly dissolves into an ache that just as quickly gives way to a smashing blow to his chest. Once more, he doubles over. Suddenly something urges him, instinctively, to turn back. He's making a bad mistake. Turn back from what? Leah? Nessie? His yet-unborn child? Nessie makes no move to approach him; she looks confused, lost, almost like she's in pain herself. "Augh," he grunts, holding his chest and wheezing. Nessie is backing away, yelling for Edward. Thousands of things are spinning through his mind; a bridge collapsing, a tower falling, a window pane cracking. They all have a common theme of destruction.

Edward comes running in and looks merely confused and a little frightened. Bella is right on his heels, looking useless like always. "Jacob?" Edward demands. Jacob gargles because he's lost in images of Nessie and Leah. In his mind, they become one, merging into the most beautiful thing Jacob's ever seen. Leah's hair and eyes and facenoselipsbodyscent on Nessie's imprint. Leah's harsh, abrasive confused hatred stamped across her face flashes behind his mind's eye. It occurs to him that Nessie looked similar, just a few minutes ago, when he first confronted her. He realizes it's because she's trying to cover hurt. What interior motive would she have to cover her hurt? Nessie feeling hurt will only bring Jacob running to her faster.

He's lost it and is spinning into an abyss. It hurts like nothing else. Everything feels smashed and lonely. He sees a figure to his left – LEAH! – but she's retreating. He reaches for her, but falls deeper. When he looks up, he knows Nessie is just out of his reach.

He can't reach her, and that hurts him worse than anything else. Pain and pain and painpainpainpain…

_****_

_She's tired. "Push, Leah!" somebody yells above her. "Push!" _

_Leah strains, but the baby isn't appearing, and it hurts so badly. She clings to Jacob's hand and sobs her exhaustion and fear. She needs him here. She'd rather sandpaper her eyeballs than admit it, but she needs him here. So big and comforting. So Jacoblack, so alpha-y. She knows Sam and Emily wanted to witness this, or at least Emily did. Leah refused. _

_Finally, the baby starts coming. She starts to strangle Jake's hand again, but he suddenly withdraws it and looks alertly outside the window. Leah knows that look. _

"_I have to go. Nessie's in trouble." Jacob snaps his hand away from Leah and bursts out the window. _

_Leah doesn't even have time to cough up a cry of desperation from her throat before he's gone. _

"_Push," says a suddenly horribly familier voice, and Leah realizes it's Nessie, grinning evilly from behind her mask. And Leah's child magically appears in her hands (this dream is so fucked up!) and Nessie cuddles her baby—LEAHS BABY -- close. _

Leah flails madly in her bedsheets, and then suddenly jerks out of their confines and jolts across the room, eyeing them nervously. The hairs on the back of her neck are all standing up and sweat glitters on her arms in the moonlight.

She also realizes she's crying. Her pillow looks drenched and tears are sliding down her face at an alarming rate. "Damn, baby," she mutters, speaking to her stomach, "You're already messing me up." Wiping at her eyes the back of her wrist, Leah shakes her head and knows she'll never be able to sleep. Nessie's face in her dream is burned into her brain as she hugs Leah's child to her – a look of almost desperation, mixed with defiance and want. Leah heads down the stairs and into a darkened kitchen, pondering this. The orange juice is in her hand when she whispers, "Holy shit…" Putting the orange juice back, Leah closes the freezer and slides down the cool surface, slowly beginning to put things in order. Her subconscious knows it, it's absorbed it through common sense and Jacob.

Nessie is infertile. Leah remembers a day Jacob phased in hysterics, (something about Nessie and babies, she'd thought at the time) and she actually had to be nice to calm him down. She remembers because it was the day that she was _too_ nice. She remembers because she told him to come get some ice cream at their house where they could talk. She remembers he couldn't talk, but he ate the ice cream and looked tragic.

She also remembers because it's the day they conceived the child in her stomach. They pressed right up against that counter, and…

Leah sinks down till she's sitting. It's why Nessie, who kind of idolized her before, suddenly turned into a super-bitch. Because Leah got dealt another shitty hand in the game of life. Only this time, it was the card Nessie desperately wanted. And the only card in the entire world she couldn't have.

Leah is still sitting there when her mother slips in to the kitchen. "Leah, sweetie?"

Leah's stomach lurches, and not from baby, but from nerves. "Sue?" the response is automatic, but her mother's eyes soften with sadness.

"You used to call me mom." Her voice sounds bruised.

And Leah feels a strange desire to cling to her and cry. Call her mommy and wrap her arms around her neck. Instead, she whispers it into her lap, because it's the only thing she can say to fix anything while simultaneously destroying it. "Mommy, I'm pregnant."

Sue's hands snap up to her mouth. "Wha…oh, Leah. It's Jacobs'." That's the thing Leah loves about her mother; she's intuitive and she doesn't need the whole story.

"Well," Leah says, struggling to put humor into her voice, "It's also mine. But yes, he gets half the credit."

It's a useless attempt to put on her game face for her mother. Sue sits down next to her and pulls Leah into her lap. "Okay." Her voice is softly brisk. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know."

"You aren't aborting it. This baby didn't do anything wrong. And it's already part of our family."

"I know!" Leah is sickened by the thought. "Plus, it…it ties…" She can't make herself finish the needy sentence.

"It ties Jacob to you. It's something better than the imprint Nessie has." Her mother's smile is sympathetic. "That's what Katrina Call's reason was, too. I will never truly forgive her for that."

"Huh?" Leah fails to see the relevance, and it isn't just because the kitchen is dark.

"Leah, long ago, when you were just a baby, Harry and I got in a fight. It was silly. It was about his fishing, and how he seemed to love fish more than me and you. I can remember it perfectly. I started throwing vases at him and he hit me. We were both completely out of control. In the end, I evicted him, got completely drunk, and cried with you in my lap the whole night. Harry went to a bar." Here Sue hesitates. "Where he also got completely smashed. Katrina, also drunk, was there. She told him she could help him. They got in bed together. The next day, Harry and I apologized and…erm…we brought Seth about, if you get my meaning."

Leah cringes. "Oh. Ew."

"But Katrina Call was pregnant. And she kept calling Harry, telling him, grinding it into my face. She told him to leave me." Sue shook her head. "He refused, but when Embry was born, he started to send her money every month anyway."

Leah has been sucker-punched. "Wha…WHAT? Daddy…Dad is Embry's…"

Sue's voice shakes. "I didn't want to tell you. But I suppose you deserve to know. He left Katrina quite a sum of money when he died, actually. Less than he left us, but enough to get her through. And it explains Embry's shift. Katrina has no wolf at all, Harry was full wolf – it all works out." Sue's smile is thin. "If enough vampires move in, do you know, I would actually probably also turn into a shapeshifter? I've got the bloodlines. It's a fate I would never wish on any female though. Especially not my own daughter."

Leah feels confusion, fury, and stares at her mother. "Seth and I are Embry's half-siblings?"

Sue nods.

Leah realizes something she hadn't before; this pregnancy is going to be bringing thousands of ugly secrets into the light, things that otherwise would stay buried.

At least her mother handled it well. "When are you going to tell Sam?" Sue asks gently.

Leah's breathing hiccups. "Never, hopefully." She pauses, looks rueful, and groans. "Probably tomorrow, if Jake gets his way." Her mother smiles, kisses her forehead, and steals the orange juice to drink straight from the bottle. Leah squeals in fake anger, and they wind up playing keep away from each other for several minutes before heading back to bed, where Leah's dreams all involve Embry imprinting on her, except he's her half-BROTHER. Sick.


End file.
